My favourite titles from those I’ve read so far have been spread across both shortlists. I’m pleased to see ‘The Dead Lake’ and ‘Bloodlines’ on our shortlist and ‘In the Beginning Was the Sea’ on the official shortlist. Only ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage’ and ‘The End of Days’ appear on both lists. Interestingly, the least popular titles among the shadow panel – ‘The Last Lover‘, ‘Tiger Milk’, ‘The Investigation‘, ‘Look Who’s Back‘ and ‘Boyhood Island‘ – didn’t make the official shortlist either, so it’s unlikely that the overall winner will be a wildly controversial choice (unanimously, at least).

‘Zone’ by Mathias Énard has been called in as a sixteenth title by other members of the shadow jury who feel that it has been criminally overlooked by the official judging panel. Having undertaken some pretty intensive reading in the past month, I will be taking a break from the IFFP for a while but will hopefully be reading ‘Zone’ and catching up with my reviews before the winner is announced on Wednesday 27th May.

What do you think of the shortlist(s)? Which book do you think will win or would like to win?